[ male announcer ] it's the car you won't stop talking about. ever. hurry in to the volkswagen best. thing. ever. event. and get 0% apr for 60 months, now until september 3rd. that's the power of german engineering. black. wow, seriously? first, the urgent crisis in egypt and what the u.s. can do now. good morning, i'm joy-ann reid in for melissa harris-perry. at least 1,000 people have been killed in political violence in

egypt this week when the military raised two camps in cairo, tens of thousands of muslim brotherhood 130r9ers protesting theous ter of president morsi. the tension continued saturday when the military stormed a cairo mosque where hundreds of brotherhood supporters were taking shelter. a mob outside attacked brotherhood members as they left the mosque. international leaders have condemned the violence. leaders of the european union called for a return to dialogue saying in a statement, the calls for democracy and fundamental freedoms from the egyptian population cannot be disregarded much less washed away in blood. the egyptian government decried the foreign influence against violence, especially against the international media, which the government believes is too sympathetic to the muslim brotherhood. officials are considering reinstating 60-year long ban on the brotherhood organization. joining us now to give us the latest from cairo's nbc news chief correspondent richard engel. thank you for being here this

morning. can you, first of all, describe the situation in egypt today. is it calm, is it tense? give us the lay of the land. >> reporter: it's certainly very tense. there are calls for more protests from the muslim brotherhood. the group is trying to organize a series of demonstrations all week. every night there's a curfew in place. you're seeing pro vigilante checkpoints in the muslim brotherhood areas. they have set up some of their own checkpoints and barricades. we're seeing divisions and clashes, sometimes between egyptians them received divided along these lines, pro military, pro brotherhood a very dangerous situation. >> richard, we're hearing on egyptian television, you're starting to see even english chirons set up, a war against

terrorism. >> it is. >> trying to describe this. won a national election, a president in office as a result of a national election, now writing off the muslim brotherhood as a terrorist organization. >> yes, that is clearly the government's objective. have you to look back at what they were doing in office. we talked about the will of egyptian people. a lot of people hated them and agree that it's a terrorist organization. it was a group that was taking active stances against women. active and aggressive positions against christians in society. its members over the last several days have been attacking chumpbls, burning government buildings. they have killed more than 100 police officers. it's not just a one-sided from the government. clearly the government has the most guns, apcs, they have been killing protesters. but the government has been

arguing it also facing a group has a tendency towards terrorism and violence and linked to international terrorism and terrorist groups. >> the flurry of attempted diplomatic activity, u.s. and also international interests that tried to talk to both sides, whether the muslim brotherhood or military side to get them to stand down and the fact it utterly failed. do you have the sense right now the u.s. is in contact with the government and that is having any impact? >> i think these statements by the u.s. of effectively saying oh, we told you so are a little bit pathetic. the united states argument and position towards egypt has been unclear. we backed mubarak for decades and got rid of him. we backed the muslim brotherhood while they were in power and now accepted the coup. once there's been a crackdown, we're unhappy with the coup

crackdown. the united states seems to want to have it all ways all the t e time. now they are talking about removing aid from egypt and cutting off a billion and a half dollars in aid washington gives this country. i think most people in this country find it to be not only insulting but something that will encourage more of an insurgency like the conservancy we're seeing now. >> thank you for joining us from cairo egypt. i want to bring in my panel. joining me director of freedom house's office in cairo. vice president, editorial at large and co-founder of global post. dr. isabel coleman, senior fellow on council on foreign real estates and a senior fellow at the century foundation. thank you for being here. michael, i want to start with you, to take a step back for a

mom, can you walk viewers through muslim brotherhood, who they are and sort of where they came from in terms of this development. this is an old organization, nothing new. >> around for 80 years, gone through varsitierations. at one point used violence as a political tool, they eventually renounced violence and slowly came to accept the idea of democracy at least in the form of electoral democracy and participating. that was in the 1980s. they participated in parliament rice under contained framework under the mubarak regime. eventually when mubarak fell they were the most organized political source in society and took advantage of the opportunity and won a series of elections in an immediate post mubarak environment. >> give me your accepts of ordinary egyptians. what is their feeling about the

muslim brotherhood. do they agree with the chirons on television this is a terrorist group or unfairly oust freddie power. >> it's divide. the muslim brotherhood, in particular president morsi, had lost a great deal of the popularity they had that propelled them to those electoral victories. a lot of that support is gone. we saw that in a broad-based uprising against the rule of morsi. i think it's fair to say this crackdown even still probably does have majority support of the populace. of course that's quite dangerous in and of itself. >> isabel, there's a question and it's obviously very complicated. you have israelis, other sources say don't go to hard on this military government. there was a discomfort of the muslim brotherhood in power anyway. oerpd if we're trying to send a signal to egypt that democracy

is the answer, what signal are we sending they can oust the elected government and the u.s. says nothing. are we in a situation to argue for a democratic solution. >> we're not in a good situation as you heard from correspondent richard engel. we sent mixed signals to the government and people over the last couple of years. i think right now there is a strong argument tore continuing aid. egyptians will be upset if we continue aid. there's also a strong argument for discontinuing the aid. i have been a proponent at this point cutting off military aid as a way of sending a signal to the egyptian government their no holds barred strategy is not one we support. we have given very lukewarm, mild rebuke to what's happened so far. i think the egyptians are going down a very dangerous path, taking the country down a very dangerous path. both sides are.

what really needs to happen is not to try to just kill each other but to pull back, make compromises and go back to trying to have a political resolution to this conflict. the united states really has to be very clear on that. >> what would cutting off aid do. you have the gulf states that would come and fill it in. there's been aid flown in from the gulf states supportive of the military before they became in charge of the government. would they fill in aid and would they stop $1.5 million. >> i think it would have a significant impact to cut off aid. it would be a clear rebuke from washington, clear signal they are not happy with the military and what they are doing. it's a message washington failed to send. i think richard engel has done extraordinary reporting in the field, courageous reporting but also insight. what richard said about the u.s. wants it all ways is very accurate. if you're there on the street, the only thing that ties

everyone together is the united states. they support add military coup. when have you those that believe in the coup, the u.s. gave too much countenance to morsi and muslim brotherhood. tough spot for foreign policy, u.s. foreign policy. at the end of the day, lost opportunity is the one thing you have to look at here. here was an opportunity to support a democratic yearning, an expression from the street in those heady days of tahrir square where you could really feel the excitement of a new democracy. all of that squandered now. the u.s. is really in a tough position. what do you support, democracy as we proclaim or stability, which we seem to be much more practical about. >> this is something, i actually was struck there was a lengthy piece in the "new york times," nancy, where they talk about the intricacies trying to deal with egyptians. we're in a bad position, we can allow a country that's been the

bedrock of middle east peace 35 years to fall apart or make a decision between supporting muslim brotherhood, idea logically a lot of americans are uncomfortable with. when they win an election you can't have a coup or a government that was in many ways trained by us. mohamed morsi has a phd from usc. the general educated at the army war college. we are very much involved in having trained and developed a lot of these leaders and now we seem to have no influence with them. >> well, i think the issue of influence, there's a need to have consistency in your policy. as mike and everyone said. you cannot just turn a blind eye when, for example, the military massacre and now come and say we're going to cut aid. this sends confusing signals to the egyptian population and

increases the holes in the anti-american sentiment there. the issue there is the americans don't care about human rights in the country but stability and peace with israel. that is very problematic. >> please stay right there. there is news from the head of the egyptian military this morning and we'll bring you that next. when you realize you need to switch to verizon, it's a reality check. i had my reality check when i'd be sitting there with my friends who had their verizon phones and i'd be sitting there like "mine's still loading!" i couldn't get email. i couldn't stream movies. i couldn't upload any of our music. that's when i decided to switch. now that i'm on verizon, everything moves fast. with verizon, i have that reliability. i'm completely happy with verizon. verizon's 4g lte is the most reliable and in more places than any other 4g network. period. that's powerful. verizon. get the nokia lumia 928 for free.

the political violence in egypt this week was staggering, the worst in decades, with the death toll in a few days was on par with the weeks long uprising in 2011. it began with the military's violent aid where tens of thousands of muslim brotherhood voters protesting theous ter of morsi and refusing to disperse.

fresh reports just moments ago from the "associated press" say egypt's military chief says the army has no intention of seizing power but will not stand by while there's violence. he's calling for inclusion of islamists. joining our panel from cairo is columnist and public speaker on issues. monarch, thanks for being here. i don't know if you heard the new statements out of the -- i guess we'll call it the government for now. what is your response to those statements? >> well, i mean, first of all, i want to make it very clear i oppose muslim brotherhood and miller and any regime that wants them involved politically because neither are friends of democracy or freedom. our revolution did not call for an slammist state or military rule. if anything, we're fighting military rule and wanting to keep the military out. i do believe, however, security forces are responsible for the

most excessive use of force but muslim brothers are not angels or friends of democracy. at the end of the day we're all egyptians and egyptians are dying in two high numbers. one day alone when they cleared the sit-ins, more egyptians died than we killed in the 18-day of the mubarak. we have to stop killing each other. we have to sit down and talk. i don't believe in excluding anyone from political discussions today. >> isn't that the main point, mona. hu this arab spring, uprising to rid the country of a dictator but the only two institutions that were prepared to organize themselves to run the country were the muslim brotherhood, who has this lengthy history of organizing underground and the military which wields power now. is there a sense there's another institution, alternative that has the organizational power to be an alternative to both of them? >> that is exactly our dilemma, joy. for the past 60 years we've been

forced to choose between these two binaries, fleets of which are friends. i condemn all killing and blood letting must stop. what we're seeing today is essentially the latest round in the battle between the military regime or regime military and muslim brotherhood. we have to stop allowing ourselves as egyptians to be forced into making a choice -- a false choice essentially. we had to make the choice last summer with the elections. now we're seeing it play out on television screens, on our streets horrifically. as egyptians we are bigger than this, bigger than the military, muslim brotherhood. we have to create that alternative. for many years we were prevented from that alternative. for years the other seed scared us to go with the other side. as a woman i refuse the binary.

the kbenl was in charge, justified virginity test. when they were sexually assaulted, cleared and morsi was president, many of his supporters and members of the muslim brotherhood were completely silent and blamed women for sexual assaults. neither of these sides are friends to women's rights, authoritarian, understand each other's language, fascism, language of fascism, with god and guns and negotiate in blood. egypt has to move beyond this and we must create this alternative. >> i want to bring the panel in. nancy, we'll go to you. that is the issue. in egypt, this is a sense of great urgency. >> that's true. i totally agree with what mona said. we've been trapped between binary from the brotherhood and if you look at the last year and a half and take away the names and levels, you find it's the

same events recurring over and again with the same way of approaching how to solve it or how to deal with it. the same approach of the ministry of interior, which was the most important demand of the 21st century, reform the security sector and to reform the access in general in egypt. when morsi came, he did not do any -- he did not take any meaningful steps in order to reform this apparatus. he also made sure that there are two articles in the constitution that give rights to the military, parliamentary oversight and also give them the right to arrest civilians when there is a national threat. so i mean, those are all the consequences of all the bad decisions that's been made since the beginning and made us -- put us in this trap between brotherhood and military

authoritarianism. >> how does military work? you have regional interest. i want to put up a map so people can remember we're dealing with a country that is so pivotal, not only its own security and office, don't want a state of civil war in egypt but look where egypt sits. gaza is right there. one of the big interests the u.s. has had is in the egyptian government keeping that closing, border crossing closed because for israelis that's a matter of security because hamas is on the side of the border running gaza strip. you have gulf states that have their own sides, taken their own sides. how does egypt work its way out of the box when you have regional interest at play rainfall there's much at stake and no doubt. if you look at the violence in the sinai peninsula up along the border of gaza and israel, you begin to get a sense of just how perilous this is. if it's out of control, see a civil conflict erupt in a way we've already seen tragically in

the last week, you have a very volatile situation regionally. i think what mona was expressing was the heart of this. that is the egyptian people deserve better. there's very much the sense of what they fought for in tahrir square, over mubarak, 30-year dictator who ran a brutal and corrupt government. it did a terrible job of governance, now a military coup. how do you get back to that. i think the yearning of june 30th, when an estimated 20 million people took to the streets and said they do not want this government of mohamed morsi, they were also saying we want democracy. they don't want a military dictatorship again. the great challenge for the united states is to get an ear for the arab street. to start to really hear what the

people are saying. i don't think that the state department has had a very good ear for the arab street today. >> at that point, put a pin in it there. mona, please stay with us as well. we're going to take a quick break and talk about the u.s. role and what can be done right after this. my asthma's under control. i get out a lot... except when it's too cold. like the last three weekends. asthma doesn't affect my job... you missed the meeting again last week! it doesn't affect my family. your coughing woke me up again. i wish you'd take me to the park. i don't use my rescue inhaler a lot... depends on what you mean by a lot. coping with asthma isn't controlling it. test your level of control at asthma.com, then talk to your doctor. there may be more you could do for your asthma. the beach on your tv is much closer than it appears.

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>> there are going to be false starts. there will be difficult days. america's democratic journey took us through might struggles. from asia to america we know democratic transitions are measured not in months or years but sometimes generations. >> that was president obama speaking thursday from martha's vineyard about the violence in egypt. the message seems clear. we can't expect democratic reform overpass in egypt. we have to ask when the military wipes out the results of what

many may have been imperfect but democratic in nature election how are we to think the country is starting down the path. i want to bring back in mona on that very question. we saw mubarak, 40-year dictator step down in february 2011. we are now really only two years on. can we really have expected egypt to stand up a u.s. style democracy in such a short time? are these the growing pains of democracy or is egypt really fundamentally off the rails. >> you know, what i think is happening we're appreciated for the unpredictability we have. for too long egypt was considered predictable. for too long five u.s. administrations support add dictator at the expense of the people for the sake of stability. so it's that kind of predictability i'm gladys gone. again, i condemn all the blood letting but we have to get this out of our system. this is a mess but it's a necessary mess because only two

and a half years after we got rid of hosni mubarak we're still trying to push forward and become free. what really stuns me and upsets me deeply is that too many people are so willing to write us off. they don't think we deserve freedom and we deserve to be free. egyptians will be free. we need to stumble and we need to learn and push the fascist aside and say you will not derail freedom and not continue to define egypt. egypt is all of us, the military and muslim brotherhood. we will not allow fascism and negotiation in blood, our question to the administration is catch up with us. you thought we were plodding along loving this strong fisted leader. my message is we will not allow another mubarak or junta to ruin our aspirations to be free. we deserve to be free. >> michael isn't that the point, the u.s. administration, not just this one but all of them, have always looked at egypt

through the lens of real politic, what are our strategic interests and how can we make that fit in. if it's a dictator, we'll work with that. doesn't the u.s. noticed to change the way it's approaching each other. >> i think it's right to look at the continuities even post mubarak. it hasn't changed very much despite utter turmoil and tumult in the region. that's true. i think the essential flaw there is the assumption that repression -- this is a flaw in the thinking of egyptians as well, repression can breed some form of stability. that repressive stability is gone. i'm not quite as optimistic as mona about the prospects for democratization, i worried about its rootedness in the society. >> talk about that a little bit. this is a country that hasn't had the fundamentals to choose its leaders, it was imposed. they are living every day lives. stability is not exactly a bad thing but also what is coming with it. when morsi was in, the fear was

islamists came with the bargain. with military, there's the fear military dictatorship comes with the bargain. >> people want stability, normalcy. the flaw in the current thinking in egypt, this past week egypt has crossed a threshold. it's not something easily resolvable. it was a threshold crossing of choice. this didn't have to happen by any stretch of the imagination. i think there is this idea that this is a way to repress their way to stability. it's totally madness, frankly. the idea that egyptians can sit by and watch hundreds of people killed in the street, and this this isn't going to precipitate an in curable cycle of violence, it's foolhardy. the recklessness of what has taken place in the last few weeks in egypt is staggering. >> isabel, is there anything the u.s. can do? pragmatically is there any

influence and with who and what can we do? >> the last real leverage is this military aid, which i think it really is an important statement if we say we're going to suspend the military aid. will they react? not clear they will. despite rhetoric saying yes, we're ready for reconciliation or compromise, want to include slammists you haven't seen it from either side. even though they won with 51% of the vote they say we're going to run it like we have full control of everything. military is doing the same thing, not making concessions necessary, stepping back from the brink of really a black hole and saying, okay, how do we step back. well, we'll release some political prisoners, you reduce

your sit-ins in the squares, pull back from that brink. then we will not prosecute some of your leaders as they are up on terrorism charges. what charges? lets see what the evidence is on some of these people they have got in prison on terrorist charges. pull back from the brink and recognize that neither side can take a winner take all attitude to this. the country is deeply divided and there has to be a political process. >> quickly, mona, is there any chance of what isobel described happening? is there any chance they can walk back from the brink? do you see evidence of that on the ground in egypt? >> i think what will happen once people realize we're paying too high a price in blood, we will remember what this revolution is abo about. the quote i like to say, i don't know who said it, maybe cesar chavez. democracy an revolution is like teaching someone it literate to

read and write. you can never unteach them to read and write. now they have seen it begin. it's not finished but they have seen it again. they understand our vote counts with real consequence. every egyptian family, including my own, has huge arguments where we yell and scream. we recognize we have different political views that have consequence. we have to learn to speak. i want to say something quick about u.s. military aid. all the money that goes to egyptian military goes back to u.s., to u.s. arms manufacturing firms. it's not just about punishing the military. i want to see that aid cut. remember that aid goes to buying u.s. weapons. if you're not seeing that aid cut, ask why. i think all of those things at the end of the day we have to stop killing each other, sit down and talk because egypt deserves better. mona eltahawy thank you for joining us from cairo. more after this. when you vote for flo, we'll have discounts. ice-cream discounts.

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back with our panel talking about the crisis in egypt. we were talking about this conundrum in egypt, seeming to be a binary choice between the military, which was very organized, obviously ran the military even under mubarak and muslim brotherhood, organized for an election. was there a third possibility unexercised in egypt? >> it was there for a fleeting ephemeral moment when we look back at the 18 days that unseated mubarak in 2011, there was a reformist islamist, tactical alliance. it wasn't very deep and it shattered deeply after mubarak fell. in march 2011, that possibility had really been damaged by various decisions made primarily by the military in charge at the time and intern capacity, muslim brotherhood. nobody has broken the zero sum mentality towards politics. i think what we've seen since, it only deepened that

polarization, that divide, the reformist islamist alliance that seemed possible for a very short period of time is never coming back now. the divisions that have ensued since and have brought the country really to the brink of really -- to broad-based civil strive, the possibility for that is really gone. that's a tragedy for the country. >> i was just going to say, i covered a lot of that effort from coming out of the moment where it seemed possible you could have this progressive element working with islamists, people working together, new future. mona talks about the right for egyptians to fulfill this revolution all the way to the end, but there's something else that mona hasn't brought up. i don't hear a lot of egyptian people speaking about, that is democracy is hard work. i didn't see those great young people in tahrir square who organized so well the demonstrations. they didn't bring the same energy, commitment, passion,

attention to detail to building democratic parties, to organizing on the streets, getting out the vote, putting up posters, making their point within a democratic process. they failed on that. i would argue the u.s. failed in supporting that effort. if you talked about what can the u.s. do, how can we get out of this, the united states needs to support civil society in egypt. if we really believe in all the rhetoric of democracy we have to support it. i don't think that's really been there on the ground in the last two and a half years, that kind of support. >> some of the expectations with regard to the possibility of organization are slightly inflated. it takes time. there's no way people who have not organized in a political fashion, whose parties have been repressed in previous years, can simply stand up to the party overnight. >> that's what's interesting. you saw in tahrir square kind of the visual markers of a popular revolution. we've seen it in south africa when you have the demonstrations

against apartheid. saw it in the u.s. when you had civil rights movement, that's what you saw initially. beneath that a lot of organizing, tactical maneuvering, institutions to go with it so you're successful, the march on washington underlying that was a bill trying to get through congress that this popular uprising would support. was that the failure, maybe what the u.s. could have done was support institution building to go along with what's happening on the ground. >> mainly institutional reform, before we talk about institution building, it's a little bit of an unfair statement when we talk about the revolutionary and activists have been lazy in organizing. they are fighting institutions that have been there with their pathologist for 30 and more years. you can't come today and ask people like we are going to fight and reform on our own. the issue is, again, not changing people, names, or political parties but reforming

those institutions and also the revolution was about changing the relationship between state institution. this did not happen. again, when we come to see how things moved on in the past two years and a half, none of the rulers have followed a transitional justice reform approach. that is very important. none of the people who committed atrocities against people before and after the revolution were held account able, only two officers were sentenced in this killing and numbers of people. >> it's true the military has never been brought to justice for those. there's a lot of the miller that th -- military they need to reconcile with the egyptian people. it's unfair to challenge egyptian people to be more effective organizing democracy. i know so many egyptian people. i've covered this story for 20 years. they are fantastic people. they are super talented. they are smart.

they are innovative. their country has been thwarted by a military dictatorship that's been supported by the united states. now they have an opportunity to throw that off and organize. joy, i think you nailed it with this. that is there's a perfect comparison to civil rights and the march we commemorate and that is it took a lot of hard work. democracy is hard week and egypt has to do it. >> we have a short time. i want to get you back in. u.s. spent years training military, we didn't institution build. we never expected it, we were supporting dictatorship for a long time. >> that's not quite fair. we did try some. people will say we didn't try enough. there were enormous constraints put on what we could do. nancy knows this well, as well as anyone. the civil societies and our attempts to support civil society were very dictated by the mubarak government, what you can fund, what you cannot. it caused enormous tension. that tension spilled over into the post mubarak period with, as you all remember, several

american ngos being put in jail, arrested for their work. >> unfortunately we're going to have to continue on twitter. thank you so much, nancy, charlie, isobel, thank you all for joining us. up next, republican politic. is the party wigging out?

henry clay served three times as speaker of the house of representatives. president john quincy adams named him secretary of state. multiple terms as senator. he was one of the commissioner appointed to negotiate the treaty of peace in 1814. the point is penury clay was he french. the whig party founded by clay

and other political opponents of president andrew jackson. it was fast in its rise to power. five times they put up a candidate for president and twice they won. william harrison in 1840 and zachery taylor in 1848. the party even boasted down ticket political stars like abraham lincoln. but by 1852, the expansion was the dominating issue of the day the whig party quick to power was quick to crumble. the conscious whigs hoarse core issue was opposition to slavery went on to form the republican party. while historians debate the definitive reason for the demise of a party that twice captured the white house, there is a general consensus that what bound together the various political factions of the whigs was one thing, unified opposition to a democratic president. in this case unpleasant andrew jackson. party of no unified in its opposition to a agenda rather

than in support of an agenda of its own. a party once at the pinnacle of political power is in the chapter of the history books. there are parallel to stories of henry clay's political party. one, today's party of no, should he lest it go the way of the whigs. verizon, it's a reality check. i had my reality check when i'd be sitting there with my friends who had their verizon phones and i'd be sitting there like "mine's still loading!" i couldn't get email. i couldn't stream movies. i couldn't upload any of our music. that's when i decided to switch. now that i'm on verizon, everything moves fast. with verizon, i have that reliability. i'm completely happy with verizon. verizon's 4g lte is the most reliable and in more places than any other 4g network. period. that's powerful. verizon. get the nokia lumia 928 for free.

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you remember the republican party makeover described in the 100 page report released by rnc in march, the one headed growth and opportunity project. if we've seen anything since then, giving the gop a makeover has been a project. wednesday at the republican summer meeting in boston, newt gingrich who once shut the government down in the 1990s offered a word of advice over those threatening to do the same thing now over obama care. >> i will bet you, for most of you, if you go home in the next few weeks while members of congress are home and you look them in the eye and say what is

your positive replacement for obama care, they will have zero answer because we're caught up in a culture, and you see it every single day where as long as we're negative and vicious and can tear down our opponent, we don't have to learn anything, so we don't. >> so there's newt gingrich once again trying to come off as the party's elder statesmen. it's precisely the elders that have no influence today. it's the right wing extremist who have mojo, rand paul, ted cruz, marco rubio. mark allen offered this. it's almost impossible to find an establishment republican in town who is not down right more owes about the 2013 that has been and about to be. the party is in a importance place than it was november 7, the day after the disastrous

election. professor of associate science international affairs columbia university. professor of social and cultural analysis. robert george, associate editorial page editor of the "new york post." for today the official pooh-bah of the republican party, we made you own them all. >> that's a hard row to hoe. >> because allan west comes with the package. i want to ask you, robert, in all seriousness, is the republican party at risk of going the way of the whigs, extinction. >> i certainly wouldn't go that far. you may not know but i worked for newt gingrich in the 1990. it's interesting how the circle has turned now. newt was exactly right republicans, particularly in the house, are in a really tough shape. this is a classic case of, you

know, idle hands become the devil's play things. one of the things that the republicans had under newt, this they don't have right now. i know a lot of liberals hated the contract with america. in fact, i wouldn't be surprised if ari's dissertation was a contract on america. >> phd luckily for you. >> but the fact was, back then they actually did have an agenda out there. a lot of people didn't like it. they came in and people knew exactly what they stood for. republicans right now seem to be in a negative mode. the best thing they have to put forward is the idea of repealing obama care or defunding obama care. without a message of what they want to do, of a true agenda, they do seem fruitless and feckless. >> i think there's a remembrance of contract with america. a lot of their agenda was naked

opposition to bill clinton. they nearly shut down the government over clinton policy. >> you know how far it's come when newt gingrich is the voice of reason. it's shocking. we not in 1994 that the republican party couldn't be any more conservative, white, southern. they really have been. look at the groups in the autopsy they need to reach out to, three main constituency, women, young people and people of color. they have alienating them in 2013. they have alienating women by passing restrictions that will shut down abortion clinics, alienated people, making it hard to vote, eliminating student loans, people of color, the voting laws they are talking about and basically looking like they are killing immigration reform. >> and smacking down marco rubio

when he tried to do it. we're going to come back and talk about the death of a party. i want to bring you in on that, by the way, the reason i bring in whig, not wigs like hair, but the idea the whigs didn't go amp but morphed bo other parties. they morphed into the republican party. they didn't die but may not be the gop after the next election, major election. we'll talk about that and the truth behind who is running things in the republican party. not who you think. who gets to play the race card. who gets to do it and when coming up after the next hour. hey linda! what are you guys doing? having some fiber! with new phillips' fiber good gummies. they're fruity delicious! just two gummies have 4 grams of fiber! to help support regularity! i want some... [ woman ] hop on over! [ marge ] fiber the fun way, from phillips'.

because all these whole grains aren't healthy unless you actually eat them ♪ multigrain cheerios. also available in delicious peanut butter. healthy never tasted so sweet. welcome back. i'm joy reid sitting in for melissa harris-perry. with america's confidence in congress at 10%, the lowest

gallup recorded for any institution ever and no agenda to speak of other than repealing obama care. the conservative movement is taking place in the states where republican governors and legislators are implementing far right legislation, some of it truly radical that will have a real impact on americans. some like texas governor rick perry didn't surprise us when he spent over a million taxpayer dollars for two special legislative sessions this summer to pass surprise restrictions on abortion providers. others like rick snyder talked the centrist talk while going from the right. city after city installing emergency managers with the power to set aside elected governments most famously in the largest city, detroit. pennsylvania governor tom corbett, so unpopular may not run for election in 2014, pushed forth a law disenfranchising voters prompting the court to

smack it down. equally unpopular governor rick scott refuses to budge on the state's stand your ground law trying a second percentage of the voter rolls, no likely that legitimate voters will be bumped off the roles. governor kasich in ohio signed new restrictions on reproductive rights. the governor in maine, education andy, a included state funding for religious schools. list goes on and on. far right republican governor implementing agendas. north carolina, its governor, pat mccrory promised if he won, which he did last november, he wouldn't sign any new abortion restrictions into law. he did just that putting his signature on a bill last month that tucked those restrictions into a motorcycle safety measure. this week mccrory signed a bill into law that takes voter suppression to a whole new

level. north carolina's new voter law requires government issue voter id at the poll, reducing the period by one week, ends sunday voting and same day registration. it doesn't get more radical than that. with me again columbia university professor dorian warren, nation magazine contributing writer arrie berman and editor writer robert george. i'm going to cow in a minute you did call north carolina voting law the worst in the nation. i promised to start with christina. do we have a sense because the national republican party can't get its agenda through the house, won't be signed by senate really governors becoming laboratory of radical values and ideas. >> i think so in critical ways. i might disagree with robert on this question of the party is just, it's an anti-party, anti-obama. i think what's really interesting when you think how democrats tend to govern, they tend to govern in a pragmatic

almost resigned attitude, you can't get everything you want, half a loaf is better than no loaf, take what you can get. this is not how they are governing. the radical right is imposing policies for the world they want to see. they want to see a world women don't have access to abortion rights, people of color have less political power. they are enacting a vision of the world. it's a bold vision. we might think it's scary. one thing we get caught up in, we get caught up in their craziness, where is the democratic world vision of the world. we're talking about their world vision all the time. >> i have to jump in here only because i think you stack the deck against republican governo

governors. lets take michig xxxx. bankruptcy is different than the law in michigan which essentially allows governments to be removed after they have voted, that is different from a city going into bankruptcy, fundamentally different. >> look, the governor was working with the financial overseer in detroit. they made this decision when they realized the only way to get detroit's finances into order was to go into bankruptcy. so that's one issue. i think in a sense that's fundamentally different from what we're talking about right here. >> lets go back to the big question here, this period reminds me of the end of reconstruction in the south when we started to see black codes and anti-voting measures, boldly

in response to the advances around racial justice post civil war. this is a similar type of period we're in. when we talk about the death of the republican party, i don't see that at all. >> hold on one second. i think north carolina is the prototypical. they are enacting the world they want to see. >> discussions in the mainstream media is gop reaching out to new constituencies, are they the party of white people. these aren't theoretical questions. look at north carolina, passed every possible extreme policy, gerry mannedered it for political power. after they passed gerrymandering, political parties they tried to make it harder for all their political apoints to vote. it goes well beyond voter id repealing early voting, what they did after they signed this law, the first thing they did

was shut down an early voting site at appalachian state university. the only early voting site at that college. they put 9300 people into a precinct made for 1500 people with 35 parking spaces. okay? then what they did is took a student at historically black college, running for office, been there since 2009, said he couldn't run for office because he wasn't a resident there. the gop chair in that place said they were going to challenge the voter registration of more students at the historically black college. this is not just wrong, it's immoral. >> what kind of message are we sending to people when you say to them you can't vote. >> i'm going to partially agree with ari on the restrictions on college student voting, and i think from a pragmatic side that if you try to send a signal that college students shouldn't be getting involved in the political process as a political party you're sending the wrong

signal. the fact, though, that a lot of democrats objected to basic government id, voter issued id when you're voting, i don't think that's a problem. in fact, the polls show even among african-americans that support it. look, to get into this building today, we had to show our -- >> you don't have a fundamental right to get do into this building. you have to work here. the point is they are paying a price in terms of approval rating in their own state. if you look at governors, governors i listened in the opening, snyder under water, walker under water, kasich has gone up since he has other issues an scott's highest is 43%. the problem is they are paying a price in the polls but then making it harder to act on your disapproval because they are making it harder to vote them out.

>> the party is not dead yet. this might be the last gasp, trying to hold onto power. bit way, in terms of the big question if you look at the democratic party and republican party, it's not just republican governors, it's republicans who hold the entire state houses and more than half the states. in terms if we ignore congress in a minute, in terms of who has governing power, it's the republican party. >> isn't it the fault of democrats, though? 2010, this was the disaster, armageddon. all those swing states democrats dropped the ball and didn't allow state houses to be taken over not just the governor's mansion. >> this tells you about the importance of redistricting and what it does to the importance of politics. the parties, whig model, is this party changing or transforming, i think there's something interesting -- interesting nonparallel to what happened in 1965. the passage of the voting rights

act. democratic party aligned itself with african-americans and against segregation. we're aligning with civil rights. all those, or many of those southern democrats became republicans, strom thurmond, entire history of the southern party and southern strategy. the party had this moment. from goldwater to nixon to reagan, this is a party, as ari was saying, deeply committed to the politics of white anxiety. a lot of white threat is playing out here. i think one of the big questions is this is not a problem of a few bad eggs. this is a fundamental problem. i don't see how they can have that democratic 1965 moment where they purge these people because it's the party's logic for the last 45 years. the question becomes, what they have is an incredibly animated base, a toxic vitality but it's the vitality of the party. >> robert, how do you deal with the party. it's hard to argue a lot isn't

fundamentally true, acting out of the anxiety of an older white demographic anxious about the role of women in the societies, anxious about issues like contraception and abortion, anxious about race. how does the party grow if that's where it's governing from? >> first of all, the idea that tea party and others are completely racist. >> nobody said racist, anxiety about race isn't saying they are racist. >> the interesting question i think democrats have to focus on is the fact that many of the republican leaders that are coming up are actually women, are actually people of color. you've got ted cruz, you've got marco rubio. >> robert, can you argue that ted cruz is representative broadly of the aspirations of the country or alan west or herman cain, any represent a constituency in their ethnic group. they are one off, they don't have constituency in their

group. how are they bringing people to the party. >> i would argue marco rubio in that group does. >> marco rubio has turned against immigration reform because he was essentially chased out of the room by the tea party. >> he hasn't turned again it. >> he walked away, now wants to shut down the government. >> eches the person that created a 60 vote, now battling it out. he's getting criticism from the right. >> the base. >> i don't disagree with that. >> he certainly hasn't walked away. >> given the fact, ar issuing, rubio was not rewarded by a party, he wasn't rewarded, he was actually punished. >> absolutely. they can't reach out to new constituencies if they are trying to disenfranchise it. you can't have it both ways. what people are doing in the states they are putting marco rubio in a bind. the minute they try to reach

out, they get so much flack they have to walk it back. we're not seeing it in congress, in the states and hard -- >> in the house, even though the house hasn't taken up comprehensive immigration reform, they have taken up the dream act. >> we don't believe -- unfortunately we're out of time. anyway, this is a great discussion, another one that has to continue on twitter. stay right there. up next, detained for waving while black. yes, waving. wow, seriously? okay, a, or b? b. or a. that's a good choice. let me show you some faucets to go along with that. with the latest styles and guaranteed low prices, you can turn the bath you have into the bath you want. good choice.

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it may be a slow news summer but no lack of material for wow seriously segment. the stories that. >> reporter: the stories that pop up leaving us saying, wow, seriously? first up, if you thought you had seen every possible type, brand and flavor of republican opposition to affordable care act, think again. enter paul wy land. he's filed a lawsuit in federal court to exempt his family from having to accept contraception coverage which would be provided under his state plan as a result of obama care. you heard it right. he wants a special legal exemption just for his family. why? because he's catholic. he believes the mandate for contraception coverage violates his family's first amendment right to freedom of religion. he says, quote, i see abortion-inducing drugs as intrinsically evil. do i cancel the coverage and put

my family at risk? i don't believe in what the government is doing. by coverage contraception in his insurance. wow, seriously? look, when i offer freedom of religion you're not free to misrepresent the issues. abortion inducing drugs? they don't provide that. they provide contraception. you might want to relate contraception to abortion but it isn't happening. if you and your family don't want to take advantage of the contraception coverage president obama's landmark legislation will afford, that's cool. but it will provide those that want it with something you and your uterus occupying cronies can't stand. other side of the world, the people's republic of china is the gift that keeps on giving. last week they were all about dressing up the babies in

watermelon costumes, using actual watermelons. this week a zoo in china thought it could pass off a dog as a lion. wow, seriously? the tibetan doing is hairy. while the lion was away at a breeding center, they decided they needed a replacement. the jig was up when the lion rather than letting out a roar offered a meager bark. to the u.s., what not to do while black. if you're black and riding a black, don't wave to police officers even if you're a firefighter. 38-year-old firefighter and father of four and youth pastor waved at police officers when he passed them on his bike in evansville, louisiana. they thought he recognized him. they didn't rec him and deemed his wave a threat. they almost used a stun gun and put him in cuffs while they could verify his identity. detained for saying held okay.

wow, that's one we couldn't wave off, seriously. madison filed a complaint with the police department's internal affairs division. coming up, the right wing and race, time to send in the clowns. giving people choices. especially today, as people are looking for more low, and no calorie options. that's why on vending machines, we're making it easy for people to know how many calories are in their favorite beverages, before they choose. and we're offering more low calorie options, including over 70 in our innovative coca-cola free-style dispensers. working with our beverage industry and restaurant partners, we're helping provide choices that make sense for everyone. because when people come together, good things happen. glass on floors. daily chores. for the little mishaps you feel use neosporin to help you heal. it kills germs so you heal four days faster. neosporin. use with band-aid brand bandages.

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fair. the backlash led to something else. backlash to backlash for some on the right to whom a beleaguered clown has become a hero of sorts. not just the usual suspects. okay, yes, some of the usual suspects. glenn beck on his radio show declared himself a radio clown. and birther conspiracy theorist provided a clown to perform at a rodeo in his state. the clown got love from "wall street journal"ist peggy noon an who urged the president to take a break to encourage the sad frown to turn his frown upside down. and steve king offered the president, mr. president, invite him for a beer summit, take the temperature down, have a beer, relax, it's not about race. it's not about race? thanks, steve king, for clearing that up. whatever would we do without the wisdom of the right to define the parameters of racism.

how else would we have known after president obama weighed in on events of the last beer summit that he was a racist if he hadn't pointed out his deep seated hated. thanks to commentators. we know the personal reaction president obama's reaction to the killing of trayvon martin was, quote, first racist in chief. weren't for the insight of ted from florida, how else would we know obama care's 10% tax on tanning beds is actually a racist tax against the melanin challenged. we owe conservatives a great deal of gratitude for showing us who is hiding behind that obama mask, a man who simply by acknowledging the fact of racism has exposed himself as the racist they know him to be. coming back to our panel, dorian, why is president obama constantly causing race each by

describing it? >> it's so interesting to me that white racists can't ever see the white side of president obama. can't they claim him for something? >> they claimed bob marley. >> that kansas part of the biography gets deleted out. it's so absurd you have to laugh a bit, right? every day we hear another story, lets get beyond race, we're not racist, then you see racist actions happen all the time. it's the norm in american politics, it always has been, of white racists saying we're not racists, we're not racists, yet you see fire hoses or people being lynched or clowns at rodeos. >> let me just defend the entire right wing on this question. >> no, as a disclaimer, i will say in my spare time i engage in improv and standup comedy and so

forth. was the rodeo clown skit incredibly tasteless, absolutely. is it racist? >> playing with the lips of the clown. wait a minute, robert, they didn't just have him charged by the bull, they were playing with the lips. is that racial at all? >> maybe. the reason why you've got the backlash to the backlash, or the outrage, if you will, put it this way, lets just say it was racist and they fired the clown. fine, whatever. the fact, though, that you've got people coming in and now saying all the clowns have to go through sensitivity training. just think about that for a minute. clouds going to sensitivity training. i think even if you accept the fact that the skit may have been racist, the idea that clowns should go to sensitivity training. no, this part i'm serious about. that i think is why sometimes when people get angry at people who do actually identify with racism, some of the solutions

they come forward with tend to get laughed out because sensitivity training -- >> this is my disclaimer, i don't like clowns, i fear them. they are scary and they bother me. one thing we're thinking about right now, what's interesting, we can't talk about racial disparities. that is talking about race and racism. that's the logic. the point you're making is really interesting is we now exist in a particular political moment of enhanced andrea mitchell opportunity. look at this table. enhanced. alongside massive racial disparities. how do too have a conversation about both those things, enhanced opportunity for certain segments alongside massive inequality, these sides become like crazy flash points. we don't know how to do this. >> we've gone so far. >> let me jump in. if you have to ask the question is something racist, it probably is racist. first off, look at history.

there is a long history of stuff used in a racial context. it's happening at a moment when we're having discussions about race in the context of voting rights, in the context of trayvon martin, in the context of stop and terrific. look at next week when there's a big march on washington, 50th anniversary. so many issues are front and center in a way they weren't even a few years ago. that's why this is such a sensitive topic. >> it is fascinating. to your point, we do have the 50th anniversary of the march. the major speaker there is the black white president of the united states showing exactly how far things -- >> robert, hold on. i want to bring dorian back in. here is the thing. we do have enhanced racial progress. what barack obama was doing was despite the fact he made it to be leader of the free world, he is not immune to day to day racism. i want to point out sensitivity

training, not just for clowns but ordinary people not dressed up as rodeo clowns. when barack obama goes to arizona singing bye-bye black sheep and railing against half white muslims or railing against obama, go home, there is a cultural aesthetic racialized on the right whether or not you want to call it racist. >> ari brought up 50th anniversary of the march on washington. lets put this in context. these same people, right wing movement, would have been absolutely 100% opposed to the march. they would have found it somehow racist that black and white people could show up on the mall. we know -- public opinion tells us they thought civil rights was going too fast in 1963. these are the very same people that would have been opposed to dr. king's i have a dream speech, even though they wrap themselves in it today. they would have been opposed to it then, opposed to every policy the march on washington represented pushing for racial

and economic justice. >> hold on one second. i'm going to give you a chance to respond. this is a good discussion. i'm going to put a pin in it for a second. when we come back we're going to talk more, let robert respond, ari get in, bring the o into it. bring the oprah in and talk about the backlash over a bag. if you've got it, you know how hard it can be to breathe and man, you know how that feels. copd includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. spiriva is a once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that helps open my obstructed airways for a full 24 hours. you know, spiriva helps me breathe easier. spiriva handihaler tiotropium bromide inhalation powder does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help

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switzerland was just an incident in switzerland. i'm sorry it got blown up. i purposefully didn't mention the name of the story. i'm sorry i said it was swpd. >> oprah's apology didn't earn her an exemption from the right. fox was happy to renew her secret racist card, responding to comments, comparing trayvon martin and emmett till, a guest on sean hannity accused her of idiocy and racial poison. robert, this is my beef with your folks, with the conservatives. >> talk about being profiled. >> i feel like there's this thing on the right where they want to own the description of what racism is. they want to be the ones to be the arbiters of what racism is and who is allowed to talk about race. oprah, you're not allowed to talk about race. barack obama you're not allowed. we're allowed.

it is glenn beck who will tell us who is racist. what is that thing that's going on on the right? >> i think on both the right -- obviously on the right and particularly in the context of the republican party we've talk about this before, it is a heavily white party right now. and you've got certainly more diversity on the left in the context of the democratic party. i think the bulk of the republican base are people of goodwill. they don't like being profiled themselves as being automatically -- as automatically racist, any criticism. >> who is profiling people? hold on. have you to answer that. >> from their point of view, they feel that any strong -- much to the strong criticism of barack obama is described by

democratic supporters of barack obama as being apparently racist and not just the fact he's a liberal. >> i can't let that go, robert. >> i'm trying to tell you from that perspective. >> the problem i have with that is that hasn't happened. if you call him a half white muslim, you get proified. bye-bye black sheep, bingo. i haven't heard a single commentator on the left describe mere criticism of barack obama as racist. >> when joe wilson from south carolina yelled out "you lie" in the state of the union -- >> never happened to a president before ever. >> was that out-of-bounds? yes. was it racist? no. i don't think that was -- look, let me say this. what we have seen in terms of political discourse over the last 20 years, successively is more and more hard edged criticism of presidents. bill clinton -- >> lets get back, to the big

issue is this, perversity and power of racial ideology when you point out disparity, stop and frisk do you have the mayor say whites are more likely to be stopped than blacks and latinos and it's a lie, facts don't support it. to flip any racial disparity on its head and say, well -- >> hypersensitivity talking about race. any kind of speech about this creates this enormous anxiety on the right. >> just two examples quickly and i'll go to you, ari. what caused glenn beck to call barack obama a racist is him saying a police officer acted stupidly. he made no racial statement. he said the police officer acted stupidly and suddenly he's a race. but speech potentially about race as a construct becomes racist on the rit. >> i have a new story out on this in the nation, people wan to point to president obama and attorney general holder about

the progress, amazing it happened. disparities, talked bought about the fact seven rushed to restrictions since supreme court ruling, don't talk about the fact white unemployment rate between white and black is the same as it was since 1963. they don't want to talk about more black men are in jail now than enslaved in 1950. this is a real moment at a time when we need civil rights movement. people are trying to talk about this like it's the past. >> one more thing i want to throw to you. this is what conservatives do want to do. this is clarence thomas, african-american and conservative. this is the way he described affirmative action. this was his response to it. he said slave holders argued slavery was a positive good, that civilized blacks elevated them in every dimension in life. segregationists defended segregation on the ground that it provided more leadership opportunities to black. this to me, more on the right than the left does. he has taken the issue of affirmative action and equated it with slavery and segregation.

that's hyperbole, i don't see that on the left side. >> i'm not sure when that was made. he's making a specific philosophical argument that affirmativaction is -- >> racist. >> well, it's racist in an ultimately it often ends up profiling blacks and so forth. i think, though, that you are -- you do have amongst republicans who -- i should say amongst certain segment, conservative whites, who having seen the advancements that have gone on in society don't always accept that racism, per se, is the largest problem, holding blacks back and so forth. that's where a lot of this

argument. when they look at violence in chicago and so forth, it's not -- it's not just -- it's not just racism that is at the root of either educational disparities or crime disparities. >> racism, a kind of way in which republicans will say the klan is bad but we don't know how to talk about the complex issues of institutional racism. we don't know how to talk about that racism. >> unfortunately robert we've got to leave it there, i'm sorry. we don't know how to have that conversation in the next 10 seconds because we have no time. thank you very much for being with us. up next the new mission for trayvon martin's mother. when you realize you need to switch to verizon,

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events. the verdict in george zimmerman's case is in. for the mother of trayvon martin, the case on stand your ground, the verdict closing his trial is far from closed. her attorney announced the next steps in her and her supporters. >> the death of my son was so negative, we felt we needed to do something positive to not only help us heal but other families of senseless gun violence. that's why we started the trayvon martin foundation. that's why we're going all over the country to the 21 states that have the stand your ground law to try to make some type of change. we understand that it's not going to be done overnight, that it's going to take time to do this, but we're in it for the long haul. we're in it. this is part of my life now. >> benjamin crump, one of the attorneys on with her, had an article in the "washington post" yesterday. this is what they said. they are taking the issue of trayvon martin to the ballot box. your vote will be historic,

starts when you sign change.org. it continues when you cast your vote in 2014 in the midterm elections and each election cycle beyond until we make history by passing a trayvon martin amendment to stand your ground laws in every state that has them. these actions will make you part of a new voting bloc, the trayvon martin voter. i spoke to ben and thought this was very interesting. what they are doing is taking a florida case about a florida law and now broadening it out to a midterm election strategy. is this smart on the part of them and it's going to really help democrats. >> i think it's smart. recognizing importance of elections and long-term organizing. both the right has done many years. policies in north carolina. these have been pushed 30 years by conservatives to get them in place. anti-union laws, nra laws, anti-women laws, all this stuff didn't come out of nowhere,

right in there's a long history of organizing. progressives have to be the same thing. >> it's fascinating, without an outlet of their own, the left has to resort to other ways of organizing the basements the right helped with vort id laws, organized latino voters. this is interesting, pulls in younger voters. trayvon martin resonated with younger people of all races. this is midterm strategy when they don't get a lot of voters out. >> interesting question, how will it galvanize young voters, how are the attacks on voters rights galvanize the population. people not be voting in a positive sense for who they like but against having their civil rights infringed. one of the interesting things from the left, part of the left's tendency of the left is to feel frustrated with

institutional party politics we retreat from it. the right doesn't do that. they are in it to win it. we have to figure out how do progressives find a way in our frustrations and disappointments to do the long game with these questions. >> let me say, i'm not sure exactly what the language of the amendment is, but i think it's great that trayvon martin's mother has taken a horrible tragedy and wants to make something positive about it. one of the concerns you have in stand your ground and you'll take a look at, if the presumption ends up being on basically the person that's alive, their word is against the person dead. that's problematic. if part of the amendment is trying tonight sure greater discovery in terms of what that person did during the encounter, i think that's great. >> the text of the amendment is if you're the aggressor you

can't -- >> i want to reemphasize a point ari made. in some years we've seen progressive political organizing grow up and become more sophisticated. this is an indication about it. it's not about voting every two years, not organizing and doing direct action with dream defenders in florida. it's about organizing, combining grassroots organizing with civic engagement. you can't go home, keep at it, policies after election day. >> normally the party out of power is the one that has all the issues to organize their base in a midterm election. next year might be a little something different. you're certainly going to have conservatives upset over obama care but those on the left upset over this -- over immigration. >> really quickly, robert, before we go, did the right make a fundamental miscalculation in the way they responded to trayvon martin case, the

response to the family and trayvon martin himself? >> i think some of them did. i mean, i was one of those people who felt -- i thought that the manslaughter could have been a credible conviction. i think some lack of sensitivity on their part. >> very measured. he said some. he got there. we're getting you there. we're working on you. thank you all so much. up next, living the dream 50 years later.

two months after john f. kennedy requested air time on each of the three television networks to speak to the nation about civil rights, a group of activists led by labor leader randolph led a march on washington. the leaders of the 1963 march

including randolph and an aide to martin luther king, jr. wanted to show support for a civil rights bill that kennedy introduced. kennedy had said in his televised address -- >> it ought to be possible for american consumers of any color to receive equal service in places of public accommodation. such as hotels and restaurants and theaters and retail stores without being forced to resort to demonstrations in the street. and it ought to be possible for american citizens of any color to register and to vote in a free election without interference or fear of reprisal. >> and the march organizers hope to make that so. the date they chose for the rally coincided withing the eighth anniversary of the lynching of emmitt till in mississippi. the official name of the march

was march on washington for freedom. it was to call out the economic inequality and social restrictions faced by black americans in the south and in the north. it was also not dr. king's march. he was one of several speakers scheduled to be on the dais that day. the speech that martin luther king, jr. planned to deliver that day was not his dream for america. it was an accuse jays. king's speech accused the country and its leaders of handing the negro a bad check. on economic advancement, access to public spaces, education and jobs. it was only when king went off script that he spoke of his dream and gave the world the lines that have come to define him in history. after the march, king, randolph and the other leaders gathered at the white house. and kennedy reportedly lined into king and smiled saying, i have a dream. three months later kennedy was did. the following july the civil rights bill that 250,000 people

marched for was passed. when we commemorate the march on washington next weekend it will be that dream and those spontaneous words from dr. king that will be on the minds of most americans. it's the goals of that march was what the movement and king were going along and we're still not there. when it comes to many members of american society, black, brown, white and, indeed, today, the struggle continues. that's our show for today. melissa will be back next week 10:00 a.m. from mall on washington, d.c. now it's a time for weekends with alex witt. >> a bakery refuses to sell a lesbian couple a wedding cake.

you will hear from some of those residents. and cory booker's challenger for the frank lautenberg seat joins us to talk about the race and his chances. are you ready for football season? the nfl has a first of its kind security policy. all those details ahead. and where in the world does mcdonald's pay $15 an hour? we'll tell you. so don't go anywhere. i'll be right back. [ male announcer ] this is george.

the day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪ . new reaction the violence in egypt. what are the chances that u.s. aid to the country will stop? could you want have been more than an accident? london police are investigating the death of princess diana. 50 years after the historic march on washington how far have race releagueses come? a new study says the book that dominated